Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: ElderToons

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Thursday, January 15, 2015

Security first (ElderToons)

Inspired by this excellent op-ed by Brendan O'Neill.

Two Hamas cartoons

This one I posted on Twitter a few days ago:

And this one is in response to the story today about Hamas not allowing kids to leave Gaza to meet Israelis:

"Poisoning the atmosphere" (ElderToons)

Third time's the charm! Rockets found yet AGAIN in UNRWA school (ElderToon)

From Reuters:

The United Nations agency that looks after Palestinian refugees said on Tuesday it had found a cache of rockets at one of its schools in the Gaza Strip and deplored those who had put them there.

United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) spokesman Chris Gunness condemned those responsible for placing civilians in harm's way by storing the rockets at the school but he did not specifically blame any particular party.

"We condemn the group or groups who endangered civilians by placing these munitions in our school. This is yet another flagrant violation of the neutrality of our premises. We call on all the warring parties to respect the inviolability of U.N. property," Gunness said in a statement.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week expressed alarm at the discovery of 20 rockets at a vacant UNRWA school and at another school a week before that.

Gunness said the body had called in a U.N. munitions expert to dispose of the rockets and make the school premises safe, and added that he could not get to the site due to fighting in the area.

Gaza has UN munitions experts? Which UN agency, specifically, does he work for?

And where was he the first two times? Did UNRWA bring one in through the Erez crossing after the discovery of the third cache? Has he just been hanging out a hotel in Gaza waiting for a chance to serve?

Forgive me if this story sounds fishy, especially after the debacle of the first two school rocket caches (the first went to Hamas, the second disappeared and probably ended up with Hamas.) Suddenly finding a UN explosives expert in Gaza seems awfully convenient.

Anyway, the big question is how this keeps happening. But I think Chris Gunness has his own ideas about that.

(h/t lots of people)

Anti-semitism in anti-Israel protests? I'm shocked! (ElderToon)

From the socialist Worker's Liberty site:

I told the man that racism had no place on the demonstration, that his presence harmed the Palestinian cause, and that the document he was promoting was a racist hoax. In the course of what was probably a not a very coherent tirade from me, I mentioned that I was Jewish.

“Well, you're blinded by your bias because you're a Jew”, he said. “Only Jews make the arguments you're making.”

Thereafter the “discussion” became more heated, and several onlookers were drawn in. Several people backed me up, but several defended him.

Their defences ranged from, “he's opposing Zionists, not Jews”, to “he's not racist, Zionism is racist!”, to the perhaps more honest “Jews are the problem. If you're a Jew, you're racist, you're what we're demonstrating against.” One man, topless, but wearing a balaclava, said “fuck off, unless you want your fucking head kicked in.”

I walked away, angry and upset. I returned a short while later to find the placard-holder embracing two young men, before leaving. When me and some comrades challenged them, they told us he wasn't anti-Semitic, merely anti-Zionist. “Look, it says 'Zion'”, not 'Jews'. 'Zion' means Zionists”, one helpfully informed us.

...In 2009, during Operation Cast Lead, some Workers' Liberty members in Sheffield (three of us, incidentally, Jewish) took placards on a demonstration against the assault which, amongst other things, said “No to IDF, no to Hamas.” As it happens, I now think, for various reasons, that our slogan was misjudged. But no-one attempted to engage us in debate or discussion about it; we were simply screamed at, called (variously) “scabs” and “Zionists”, and told we must immediately leave the demo (we didn't). Our placards were ripped out of our hands and torn to pieces.

I don't make the comparison in order to express a wish that what happened to us in 2009 had happened to him in 2014. I wouldn't particularly advocate physically destroying the man's placard, or attempting to physically drive him and his supporters off the demonstration. But a movement in which “no to IDF, no to Hamas” is considered beyond the pale even for debate and discussion, and must be violently confronted, but a placard promoting The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion can be carried without challenge, even for a moment, and its carrier find numerous defenders, needs to change its political culture.

The author still downplays leftist antisemitism as an aberration despite his own experiences. Perhaps he should read this report from one of those horrible right-wingers about what is happening across Europe nowadays:

People who are "visibly Jewish," people wearing identifiably Jewish dress, have found themselves targeted for abuse. Demonstrators at the biggest central London march assaulted and verbally abused a Jewish woman who had expressed her support for Israel, calling her a "Jew Zionist" among other things, before stealing her mobile phone. In North London, a rabbi was abused by a group of 'youths' who shouted "F*** the Zionists," "F*** the Jews" and "Allah Akhbar."

All of this is mild compared to what has been going on across the English Channel in France. In suburbs and parts of central Paris the violence being perpetrated against the Jewish community culminated in the disturbing spectacle of Parisian Jews barricaded in a synagogue by a crowd of young North Africans seemingly intent on violence. When the police failed to turn up in any numbers, the Jews fought for themselves. These were not all "Jewish vigilantes" as some of the press disturbingly reported -- Jews in their 40s and 50s fighting their way through a mob.

Since then, the French authorities have banned -- as French authorities have the right to do -- some other planned "pro-Palestinian" protests. But the bans seem not to have worked. "Youths," as the media are prone to title the rioters, who mainly come from the suburbs of Paris and other cities, have taken to the streets, anyhow. There are videos of them smashing up pavements in order to get chunks of asphalt to hurl at police. A Paris suburb with a large Jewish -- not Israeli, just Jewish -- population has been a particular focus of protestors. In some video footage, protestors have been shown attacking police cars and assaulting public and private property. The French authorities are clearly trying to get a handle on the protests, but to a considerable extent, events have slipped from their control.

Similar scenes have been seen across the continent. In the Netherlands -- fresh from witnessing a pro-ISIS rally in Amsterdam -- there have been serious incidents at protests. There have been anti-Semitic chants, and the home of the Chief Rabbi in the Netherlands has been attacked twice in one week. In Austria, a soccer game involving an Israeli team had to be called off after Palestinian demonstrators broke onto the pitch. The stands had people waving anti-Israel banners and Turkish flags. But once they were on the pitch, the protestors assaulted the Israeli players, doing flying kicks at them and then further kicking and punching them. Some of the Israeli players fought back and the game was halted.

Most disturbing of all, perhaps, have been events in Germany. During pro-Palestinian protests in Berlin and other German cities, there were chants of "Death to the Jews" and "Gas the Jews." The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, described some of the demonstrations as "an explosion of evil and violence-prone hatred of Jews. Never in our lives did we believe it possible that antisemitism of the nastiest and most primitive kind would be chanted on the streets of Germany."

And it is in Germany that such sentiments have met their most appropriate public and political opposition. There, at least, the nature of these protests has not been glossed over. On the contrary there has been a suitable soul-racking over this. How could such a cry have gone up in this country, of all countries? The major German magazine, Bild, has run a cover with the headline, "Raise your voice: Never again Jew Hatred!" The cover is dotted with famous figures in German public life from the President and Chancellor Merkel to other political and public figures. The montage sends out a powerful message. The question is, of course, whether that is enough.

Abbas' idea of a "peace agreement" is to continue to wage war (ElderToons)

This story has been out for a few days (and in a recent linkdump) but it hasn't received the coverage it deserves:

Abbas “went to the White House and said ‘no’ to Obama,” Channel 2 news reported, quoting unnamed American and Israeli sources.

Specifically, the report said, Abbas rejected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demand that he recognize Israel as a Jewish state. He also refused to abandon the Palestinian demand for a “right of return” for millions of Palestinians and their descendants — a demand that, if implemented, would drastically alter Israel’s demographic balance and which no conceivable Israeli government would accept. And finally, he refused to commit to an “end of conflict,” under which a peace deal would represent the termination of any further Palestinian demands of Israel.

If a "peace agreement" doesn't mean an end to conflict, then what the hell is it supposed to mean?

Those who aren't blinded by wishful thinking know exactly what his aim is.

Back in 1948, the Arabs also liked to use the word "peace" when speaking to the West, confident that no one would figure out that their definition of "peace" was to eliminate Israel.

Nothing has changed.

EU stupidity beyond parody, courtesy of Emer Costello (ElderToons)

From the same AFP article I quoted earlier today:

On Thursday, an EU parliamentary delegation urged Israel to release long-term Palestinian prisoners, saying it was crucial to move a fragile Middle East peace process forward.

"We believe that the release of prisoners... is central to the peace process," said Emer Costello, who headed the EU delegation on a three-day fact-finding mission on Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

It is truly a crazy world where this statement can be said by a public figure without a wave of derision for such unfathomable stupidity.

Abbas' latest threat (ElderToons)

From AFP:

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas demanded in talks with US President Barack Obama that Israel free key Palestinian prisoners, including Marwan Barghuti, a Palestinian official said Thursday.

Earlier this month, Abbas said Palestinians will not agree to extend peace talks with Israel beyond their April 29 deadline without Israel releasing more prisoners beyond the fourth and final tranche planned for later this month.

During his meeting with Obama in Washington on Monday, "President Abbas demanded the release of more prisoners and Palestinian leaders in Israeli jails, like Saadat and Barghuti and Shubaki," manager of the Palestinian prisoner club Abdulal al-Anani told the official Voice of Palestine radio.

He was referring to Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader Ahmad Saadat, former Palestinian Liberation Organisation finance official Fuad Shubaki and Marwan Barghuti, one of the main architects of the 2000 intifada.

And this isn't even the most ridiculous part. Stay tuned for the next 'toon later today. (Or check my Twitter feed if you can't wait.)

How Abbas looks at the "negotiations" (ElderToon)

Abbas' "peace plan" (ElderToon, updated)

An old joke but it still holds up.

I have never heard Abbas rescind the PLO's Stages Plan of 1974. Quite the contrary - his Fatah cronies say it is still in effect, today.

UPDATE: Commenter "Rabbi Burns" suggested that I document the idea in the poster itself, so I did.

American Logic (Eldertoons)

It all makes perfect sense if you are schizophrenic.

The Bedouin plan (ElderToon)

ElderToon: Israel's right to defend itself

ElderToons: Iran draws a red line

Al Arabiya reports:

Iran will not sign up to a nuclear deal with world powers unless they accept its right to enrich uranium, its chief negotiator told reporters on Thursday.

Abbas Araghchi, speaking a day after talks with world powers resumed in Geneva, said Iran would not suspend its uranium enrichment activities, adding it was a “red line” for the Islamic state to do so.

“We have lost our trust ... we cannot enter serious talks until the trust is restored. But that doesn’t mean that we will stop negotiations,” Reuters quoted him as saying.

Whoa, no one said that it was a red line! That's serious - one you declare a red line, the rules say we cannot cross them!

OIC warns of "religious war" if Jews pray on Temple Mount (ElderToons)

From Al Ahram:

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation warned Israel, the occupying power, of igniting a religious conflict that it would bear the full responsibility for, if it goes too far in their attempts to divide the Al-Aqsa mosque and to allow Jews to pray inside the walls.

At their meeting the OIC adopted a draft ministerial decree that warns Israel, the occupying Power against acts that provoke the feelings of Muslims around the world through the dangerous escalation of its policies and sinful actions aimed at Judaizing and the division of Al-Aqsa Mosque and to allow Jews to pray inside the walls and in its areas. Legalizing such acts are serious and ...could ignite religious conflict that Israel bears full responsibility for. The OIC calls for the international community to rein in Israel, the occupying power, and force them to stop these attacks and serious disregard for peace and security in the region.

Either the OIC is saying that it supports starting a war over the Temple Mount, or they are saying that Muslims have no self control and cannot help their own violent tendencies.